Previews

Wii Sports Resort Hands-on Preview

Two GameSpy editors go toe-to-toe for the most sought-after fake sports trophy this side of Mario Kart.

Spiffy:

The Wii Motion Plus peripheral works really well at enhancing motion controls.

Iffy:

Party gamers beware: It's a little less "gamey" and a heck of a lot more skill-based.

To prepare for the impending release of Nintendo's summer-themed mini-game extravaganza Wii Sports Resort, we picked four of our favorite mini-games from GameSpy's preview copy and competed to find out who the best fake athlete is. Here's the blow-by-blow!

Event #1: Archery

Ryan: Our first sport was intermediate-level Archery. The concept is simple: Hold down the A button to nock an arrow, pull back the Nunchuk while holding the trigger, aim a big targeting circle, and release. It's surprisingly intuitive and very skill-based. I did well against Anthony for the first two rounds (no small feat, considering how much he practiced in order to kick my ass at this specific event), but it quickly turned into an approximation of Robin Hood vs. the One-Armed Man.

Anthony: It's true -- I did beat Ryan pretty badly. Which is I why I changed the difficulty to "beginner" for our last round. It went pretty well; I actually think he could have kept up with me if he had a better understanding of how the wind affects shots. I mean, 9 MPH wind that's coming in from the right means that you have to aim significantly off-target in order to hit the center (just like in real life). Thankfully, I'm not relying on Ryan to shoot out a noose from under my neck anytime soon.

Event #2: Speed Slice

Anthony: While Ryan may not be much of an archer, his knowledge of the sword is most impressive. In our Speed Slice competition -- where we competed to see who could chop the article in front of us with the correct slice first -- he totally destroyed me. I was able to make precise angular cuts, but Ryan was just way too fast at making those horizontal and vertical cuts. I was impressed by how accurate the cutting motions felt, and noticed that the materials actually responded to the exact angle of our slashes (not just in a way that suggested only eight predetermined slices or something). Speed Slice is much better than Wii Sports Resort's normal sword fighting, as I feel this one actually requires skill, and shows off the precision of the various motions.

Ryan: I learned everything I know from watching samurai movies. And the Star Wars Kid on YouTube. In any case, my intensive training regimen paid off, because I sliced every single watermelon and alarm clock that the constipated judge (literally) threw at us, and I did it faster than Anthony. This whole Wii Motion Plus concept is really growing on me. I was no fan of the original Wii Sports, but this thing's genuinely fun so far!

Event #3: Frisbee

Ryan: I take back everything I said about fun, because boy is this Frisbee game tough. I blame my cute little cartoon dog, who's somehow incapable of the super-speed and logic-defying catches necessary to compensate for my horrible throwing skills. It was never this hard in real life. Then again, Anthony told me I was throwing like a... well, we'll just say "a Frisbee-challenged moron." Then again, I did completely beat his ass in one out of our three matches.

Anthony: It took some getting used to, but I found Frisbee throwing to be pretty true to life. Not only did we both have to watch when we released, but we also had to keep a close eye on the angle of the Frisbee, at times angling our throw so it would arc through a target. From what I've played so far, this could be the most skill-based game outside of Archery, which is why I beat Ryan down once again. And Ryan, if you don't like throwing Frisbees to your dog, you can always try Frisbee Golf (although you'll need some crazy accuracy skills).

Event #4: Basketball

Ryan: For our final game we chose a three-pointer Basketball match. The Wii Sports Resort contest as a whole was going to be a best-three-of-five marathon, but, spoiler, Anthony won this game too. Anyway, the three-pointer match gives each player one minute to hoop up to 25 basketballs. Anthony "Cyborg" Gallegos managed to sink what I'm guessing were at least 50 percent of his throws, while I was lucky to land half of that. We were both jumping around like fools -- kind of like all the incredibly fake people you see in the various Wii commercials -- and consequently, I got very winded after throwing like three balls. ProTip: Don't adopt my real-life exercise non-habits.

Anthony: I thought this game was fairly simple and not as skill-based as the others -- the timing of the release seemed more important than your actual aim -- but it was still fun enough to have us both smiling like idiots. And let's be honest, Ryan: While I may have sunk more shots than you, I certainly was a far cry from being a Globetrotter or the like. This isn't one of the games that I see having lasting appeal, but it will work well as a palate-cleanser between the inevitable multiple rounds of archery.